


we been keeping score

by My_King_And_Your_Lionheart



Series: We're All Just Kids [3]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Teenage Criminals, Gen, Lex Luthor Goes To Jail, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Yes Kaldur Is In The Mob, it's what he deserves, kids being kids, spray painting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 23:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13580982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_King_And_Your_Lionheart/pseuds/My_King_And_Your_Lionheart
Summary: They might be criminals, too, but they're only breaking the law to save the city. That balances it out, right?





	we been keeping score

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the "things you said" series of prompts. This one in particular is "things you said when we were on top of the world". Not beta'd, you know the drill
> 
> Title from World Will Know from Newsies

It is not the first time the Team has scaled the Lex Corp building, is not the only time they’ve spray painted their symbol over the penthouse windows, is not the last time they will do so. It is, however, the first time the Luthor is being taken away for his crimes, a speck of a human on the street below, being pushed into the backseat of a cop car to be put to trial for starting wars and going against the country and human trafficking and just generally being a dick.

It’s a success in the biggest way, because Dick had found a little bit of thread that didn’t match up with the tapestry of Luthor’s empire, and he’d kept pulling and pulling and _pulling_ until the whole thing had unraveled- until the blood diamonds from Biyala were found, until his plot with Ra’s al Ghul’s to decimate the Western world was stopped, until Lawrence Crock ratted Luthor out to being the mastermind behind all the people found in Crock’s shipping crates, until _everything_ came apart. Dick had lined up every fact, every observation, every tip he’d gotten from other street kids until he had thousands of pages of information painting Luthor’s hands red. He hadn’t done it alone, of course.

Artemis didn’t seem to mind turning her own father in, knowing he’d turn traitor to Luthor, knowing he’d spend most of the rest of his life in jail. M’gann and Connor had had fun tracking down every online trail of coded and encrypted exchange between Luthor and al Ghul, had loved every puzzle-solving second. Kaldur had used every mob connection he’d had, had asked anyone from Greece to Egypt if they’d heard tell of anything happening in Biyala. Wally’d had the time of his life breaking into the police station in the middle of the night to drop off the folders of information they’d gotten, avoiding cameras and leaving a small calling card with their tag on it in Commissioner Gordon’s office.

“We did it!” It’s Dick’s voice, crowing over rooftops and ventilation shafts, that launches them all into cheers. Everyone had had their doubts on if their planning would work, on if the police chief would finally bring Luthor to justice after years of the same old nothing happening every day. But the police cruiser turns the corner out of sight, and there are too many cars that look just like that one in this city to try and track it down so they can see Luthor’s face when his crimes are laid out before him in perfect detail, to see his face when those bars close behind him until he rots in that cell. Dick can say he’s never felt happier, even just imagining it.

“You know we did!” Wally stretches his arms out wide, his chest full of laughter, the leather of his jacket creaking.

“He’s finally gone.” Artemis’s voice is softer, for all that it’s still coming from a smile, and none of them are really sure if she’s talking about Luthor or her father. Both are cause for celebration, though, so no one asks for clarification.

“And he will never come back.” Kaldur’s arm lands heavy around her shoulders, warm through her jacket, warm even in the wind they’re getting this high up. “We have made sure of that.” The butterfly knife he’s flicking in his free hand gleams like his teeth do in the sunlight. 

“So, what do we do now?” M’gann’s question doesn’t take the smiles from their faces, even though the answer is only more work and blood than they’ve already given to this city, more than this city deserves from them.

“Now, we get to be happy. We won. Let’s put off feeling anything else until at least Tuesday.” Connor’s laughter is gentle, but it grows when M’gann tries to push him, only for her feet to slide backward on the gravel of the rooftop. He grabs her hands and twirls her around into his arms, swaying from side to side. “Sound like a plan?” M’gann hums, letting her head fall back against his shoulder. 

“I’m down for that.” Wall throws his arms around Artemis and Kaldur, knocking them enough off balance for Dick to leap at them and get the trio to the ground. Kaldur, ever the protector, curls his arms around Artemis and Wally, tucks their heads under his chin before they hit the ground. He lets them go and but their heads stay on his arms, gravel digging uncomfortably into his elbows, staring up at the sky. Dick’s legs are tangled in his from the fall, and Dick’s head is somewhere over Wally’s stomach, and the whole pile is actually kind of prickly but Kaldur wouldn’t move for the world. There’s a small trickle of blood moving down the back of his arm from where the gravel scraped him a bit too roughly, but it’s nothing he can’t deal with later.

Dick is the first to move, taking a considerable amount of time to get his legs out from where they seem to be magnetically attached to Kaldur’s. He sits on the edge of the rooftop, feet dangling over the edge. The sun is just starting its downward descent, not really close to the horizon, but enough that the sky has started to change. They’ll need to leave before the light does, otherwise, they are probably all getting injured on the run back to their apartment. 

Artemis and Wally come over on his right, sitting next to him and looking out over the city. Kaldur crowds him on the left, and Dick doesn’t know how he’s still warm in that denim vest and cut off shirt. M’gann and Connor are next, until they’re all in a line across the rooftop. M’gann will find this scene as a photo later, when she goes to a photography exhibit hosted by the local college, and she’ll buy it for less than the Team considers it to be worth, but more than the college student was expecting. It’ll hang in every apartment they ever own together, and, eventually, when they find themselves settling down in different houses, different towns, along different coasts, it’ll pass from person to person, traded over holidays and get-togethers until there’s a darker patch on everyone’s wall where it’s meant to hang, until they finally track down the original student and ask her for the original photo, until they each get their own copies in matching frames.

For now, they’re on top of the world, laughing with each other, looking out over their city with smiles splitting their cheeks. They know that it’s not over. That even as Wally presses a kiss to Artemis’s cheek and Connor folds his hand into M’gann’s, it’s only just beginning. With Luthor gone, a power vacuum will sweep through the city, and there will always be criminals trying to fill it. But the Team is here, has no plans to leave, no plans to be anywhere but with each other, always.

**Author's Note:**

> First work of twenty gayteen and its about the nasty assholes getting whats coming to them and my childern being happy. school is actually kicking my ass lately so i'll only be able to post what i work on late at night when i can't sleep, which feels like all the time now. i really want to get back into this series, as usual based on the wonderful illustrations found here -> http://murrmernator.tumblr.com/post/100024348321/what . peace out kids, drink water, sleep well!


End file.
